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As a form of international communication, the Internet has been in constant expansion since 1973, when the ARPAnet was first connected to the United Kingdom and Norway. Much of northern Europe was connected to the Net in the early 1980s. Japan and Canada soon followed suit. A special link was established between Germany and China at about the same time. And then in the late 1980s the real growth began as Australia, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand and Puerto Rico joined the Net.